Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

nbcnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 1001 posts

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#121

Post by slg »

chaoskitty wrote: post #110

It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing, which informs us, the citizens, about what our governments are doing that's illegal, than about the illegal activities themselves. What does that say about those people? Are they easily led by emotion? They certainly don't care about the rule of law, if breaking the law by others can so easily be ignored. They aren't particularly patriotic, i…

>It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing...

This is true in both directions and Assange is the perfect example of that. Someone being a whistleblower is not a get out of jail free card and there are still laws regarding how whistleblowing should be handled and what qualifies. Assange leaked a lot of important stuff that qualifies, but that wasn't all he leaked or did. A shockingly few number of people seem willing to engage this issue with the nuance that is requires and either label Assange a hero or a villain when he clearly is somewhere in between.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#122

Post by teractiveodular »

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #107
funOtter wrote: post #105

Why is this case located with the United States District Court For The Northern Mariana Islands?

The case is federal, it's not confined in jurisdiction. But the plea deal is being entered there because of "defendant’s opposition to traveling to the continental United States to enter his guilty plea and the proximity of this federal U.S. District Court to the defendant’s country of citizenship, Australia, to which we expect he will return at the conclusion of the proceeding" https://storage.courtlistener.com/reca…

Interesting. So he'll have to physically be present in the CNMI? Presumably he'll fly London-Tokyo-Saipan, since this is just about the only way to get there without transiting the US (including Hawaii).

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#124

Post by usernamed7 »

I never thought they had it in them. Never thought in a million years they'd let this go. It gives me some faith that the US govt. was able to move on from this. When democracy itself is at stake, this wins important favorability. Good on the biden administration.

Less persecution of those that benefit society, more persecution of those that seek to undermine it, please.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#125

Post by protocolture »

slg wrote: post #121
chaoskitty wrote: post #110

It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing, which informs us, the citizens, about what our governments are doing that's illegal, than about the illegal activities themselves. What does that say about those people? Are they easily led by emotion? They certainly don't care about the rule of law, if breaking the law by others can so easily be ignored. They aren't particularly patriotic, i…

>It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing... This is true in both directions and Assange is the perfect example of that. Someone being a whistleblower is not a get out of jail free card and there are still laws regarding how whistleblowing should be handled and what qualifies. Assange leaked a lot of important stuff that qualifies, but that wasn't all he leaked or did. A shockingly f…

I am not aware of anything he has leaked being problematic. In fact, the US couldnt demonstrate that he had lead to the death of any soldiers or spies. And in a lot of cases, the spying was certainly unjustified.

I find it troubling that people dont have the nuance to identify that hes a bit of a smelly housemate and problematic manager but ultimately a clear net benefit to mankind.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#126

Post by wmf »

chaoskitty wrote: post #110

It amazes me that so many people care more about the act of whistleblowing, which informs us, the citizens, about what our governments are doing that's illegal, than about the illegal activities themselves. What does that say about those people? Are they easily led by emotion? They certainly don't care about the rule of law, if breaking the law by others can so easily be ignored. They aren't particularly patriotic, i…

I wish the US had offered whistleblowers reasonable plea deals and they had taken them. Unfortunately that's not the world we live(d) in. The US pursued a policy of vindictive and extralegal punishment against "enemy combatants" that made a lot of people doubt whether they could get fair treatment.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#127

Post by protocolture »

jpz wrote: post #120
faeriechangling wrote: post #31

He was already effectively a political prisoner. The US made enough of an example of him I guess. Expose US war crimes and this will happen to you.

He worked as a conduit for Russian interests.

He released public interest information during an election.

It has never been proven he had some killer stuff on trump and failed to leak it.

Its not his job to selectively withhold information during an election to make demo voters happy.

And trump is basically immune to bad press anyway. What more could you say about him that hasnt been said.

This claim never held water and still fails to.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#128

Post by protocolture »

dralley wrote: post #106
faeriechangling wrote: post #31

He was already effectively a political prisoner. The US made enough of an example of him I guess. Expose US war crimes and this will happen to you.

Much like Snowden, people attach to whatever the highest-profile thing they released was, and act like that's the only thing they released. It's not, it's just what got the most attention. It's maybe 0.5% of the portfolio if you're being generous. Both Snowden and Assange went far beyond "blowing the whistle" in what they leaked and/or solicited.

Yes and they are great for releasing all that extra information. Its a fantastic public service they have provided.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#129

Post by defrost »

jpz wrote: post #120
faeriechangling wrote: post #31

He was already effectively a political prisoner. The US made enough of an example of him I guess. Expose US war crimes and this will happen to you.

He worked as a conduit for Russian interests.

and stole classified documents.

Wait, Assange or Trump?

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#130

Post by wmf »

sackfield wrote: post #109

In an ideal world we would get to do a reverse investigation to understand which government officials were complicit in his very obviously politically motivated detention, action would be taken upon those individuals to ensure accountability, and the system itself would be updated so powerful interests can't abuse the law like this. How far are we from this world?

There has been reporting on this. Apparently there was one zealous person in DOJ pushing the Assange case and everybody else thinks it's too weak to be worth it.
Post reply on HN